With quarterback Brendan Sorsby intending to apply for the NFL’s supplemental draft, some are watching and waiting to see whether the NFL will welcome him to the ranks of professional football.
Two key questions have arisen, from the NFL’s perspective. First, will the league accept Sorsby into the supplemental draft? Second, will Commissioner Roger Goodell impose a suspension on Sorsby for underage (and thus illegal) gambling and/or for betting on Indiana games while he was on the Indiana roster (but not playing)?
The Terrelle Pryor precedent has caused some in league circles to believe the league will try to simulate the NCAA’s punishment — basically, no football at all in 2026. In 2011, the league placed a five-game suspension on former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor, mirroring the suspension that was imposed on Pryor by the NCAA.
Then there’s the case of Kayshon Boutte. Earlier this year, he wrote an article for the Players’ Tribune regarding his gambling addiction while in college.
“I’d wake up early in the morning, and the first thing I’d do was bet,” Boutte wrote. “I’d stay up late and bet. All day. All night. I had insomnia, so if I woke up in the middle of the night, phone next to the bed, I’d bet. Any little money I had, it was going straight to FanDuel. . . . I knew I was addicted.”
Boutte said he started gambling after suffering an injury at LSU that left him unable to play. Betting was his way of replacing the sense of competition.
He made more than 8,900 bets, with at least six bets placed on LSU. The wagering continued until at least one week after Boutte was drafted in 2023. (Boutte didn’t turn 21 until May 7, 2023.)
None of that came to light until after Boutte’s rookie season with the Patriots, when he was charged with underage betting in Louisiana. The charges were later dismissed. Most importantly, the NFL took no action against Boutte.
Of course, Boutte had completed a full season in the NFL by the time the story broke of his underage betting habits. If the league had suspended him then, the league would have been drawing more attention to the fact that Boutte’s behavior had slipped through the cracks at a time when the NFL could have, in theory, known about his betting issues.
With Sorsby, the issue has come to light before his NFL career begins. Based on the fact that the NFL did nothing to Boutte, the timing of the disclosure shouldn’t matter.
That may not stop the league from doing whatever it believes it has to do, given the intense focus on the Sorsby situation — and given that multiple gambling scandals have emerged in other sports since Boutte’s arrest in January 2024.

Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby plans to apply to enter the NFL Supplemental Draft, ending the drama over whether he would be eligible to play for the Red Raiders this year despite violating NCAA gambling rules.
Monday night’s news came one week after the college sports world was roiled by the ruling of a Lubbock County judge, who barred the NCAA from preventing Sorsby from playing despite having admitted to thousands of gambling violations, including betting on his own team when he was at Indiana.
But it also came at the end of a day in which the NCAA and the Big 12 each had court filings in separate lawsuits involving Sorsby’s case. The debate over his eligibility involved the attorneys general of several states and the presidents of the Big 12 universities, and it raised questions about the NCAA’s legitimacy if the organization could not enforce its own rules.
In a letter to fans, Texas Tech Board of Regents Chair and megadonor Cody Campbell said Texas Tech would continue to provide support and recovery resources for Sorsby. It also won’t seek repayment of any amounts already paid to the quarterback through school NIL agreements. Sources familiar with Sorsby’s contract said the quarterback had already earned about $1 million through deals with Texas Tech and third-party outlets.
“This decision was made with Brendan and his family, and is purely an output of practical analysis of the situation,” Campbell wrote. “Brendan and Texas Tech stand on very solid and legitimate legal ground, but he faces a June 22nd deadline to be eligible to enter the NFL’s supplemental draft, and there is no practical way to resolve all the various pending legal disputes and ensure his eligibility prior to this date. This is the only viable and fair path for Brendan and his future, as well as for his teammates, and our university.
“Brendan, while he made many mistakes that he openly admits, has also been part of a much larger broken and predatory system, and we believe that all people deserve a second chance. It is gut-wrenching that there is no viable path to providing him with redemption at the collegiate level.”
Texas Tech president Lawrence Schovanec and athletics director Kirby Hocutt also released a statement in which they said, “When Brendan’s lawsuit resulted in the granting of a temporary injunction, we found ourselves in a difficult situation. With his health and wellness as our top priority, we supported him in spite of very different perspectives and opinions. Our position was challenged by many but our support for him never changed. We will continue to extend all available resources that Brendan had as a student and athlete to ensure his transition is as successful as possible.”
In an Instagram post, Sorsby thanked his family, his coaches and teammates at Texas Tech and “so many others who have encouraged me to address and learn more about this important issue. As my journey continues, I remain fully committed to and focused on being the best I can be, both on and off the field.”
One of the most sought-after quarterbacks in last winter’s transfer portal out of Cincinnati, Sorsby chose Texas Tech, a program that won last year’s Big 12 championship but failed to score against Oregon in the College Football Playoff. With a financial package worth more than $4 million, Sorsby was supposed to take the Red Raiders over the top.
But he announced in April that he would enter a treatment facility for a gambling addiction, which came after the NCAA notified Texas Tech of an investigation into his gambling. In subsequent legal filings, the NCAA learned of Sorsby’s gambling through law enforcement.
By his own admission, Sorsby has wagered at least $90,000 on more than 9,000 bets over the course of his college career, with stops at Indiana and Cincinnati before Texas Tech. That included betting on Indiana football as a team member, though not in games he played in, as well as Indiana and Cincinnati men’s basketball games, also against NCAA rules. Sorsby also transferred money to others to gamble under proxy sports betting accounts, including since he transferred to Texas Tech in January. (Mobile sports betting is illegal in Texas.)
He was deemed permanently ineligible by the NCAA, which also denied his appeal in late May. Sorsby filed a lawsuit against the NCAA last month, claiming the organization was not looking out for his best interest and welfare by banning him. The judge in Lubbock County sided with Sorsby last Monday, granting an injunction through the college football season, as well as a self-recommended two-game suspension for the quarterback.
That ruling sparked backlash across the country. Nebraska and Georgia told their coaches not to schedule Texas Tech in any sport. The Big Ten considered a league-wide ban but opted against it. Big 12 administrators seethed and considered a slew of potential conference sanctions.
Texas Tech school leaders said they were focused on Sorsby’s recovery and had put monitoring in place to make sure he didn’t place any more bets. They didn’t explicitly say they planned to play him, but Campbell said that Texas Tech owed it to Sorsby to play him if he was eligible.
Last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a letter to the Big 12, warning the league against levying sanctions against Texas Tech. (Under state law, the Texas attorney general would represent Texas Tech in court.)
That letter was part of the Big 12’s federal filing on Monday, claiming the conference had a First Amendment right to enact its own bylaws, and that a supermajority of schools could vote to sanction Texas Tech if Sorsby played. Attorneys general from Oklahoma, Kansas and Utah wrote letters in support of the Big 12.
“It’s been a challenging week for both our conference and the college athletics landscape,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said. “The Big 12 looks forward to moving ahead as 16 strong. We wish Brendan Sorsby success in his future endeavors.”
Sorsby’s plan to enter the supplemental draft ends the drama. His attorney Jeffrey Kessler told The Athletic they plan to withdraw their state lawsuit on Tuesday, which would make Sorsby ineligible to play college football and therefore eligible for the NFL Supplemental Draft.
The supplemental draft is typically meant for college players who lose eligibility late in the process. The first one was held in 1977. Prospects have to apply with and be approved by the NFL league office for eligibility in the supplemental draft. The league hosts the supplemental draft only when there are eligible players, which hasn’t happened since 2023. There were two eligible prospects that year, though neither was selected. A player hasn’t been selected in the supplemental draft since 2019 — the longest drought in its history — when the Arizona Cardinals selected defensive back Jalen Thompson.
The deadline to apply is June 22. An NFL spokesperson declined to comment on Sorsby’s situation.
What’s next for Texas Tech at QB?
Without Sorsby, Texas Tech will move forward with Will Hammond as its starting quarterback. Hammond has been recovering from an ACL injury suffered last October, but head coach Joey McGuire said last month he expects him to be ready early in the season.
Hammond has participated in seven-on-seven throwing. He should be fully cleared to play in late August, but it might take more time for him to get game-ready. Hammond threw for 680 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions in eight games last season as a redshirt freshman in relief of injured Behren Morton. Hammond helped lead Texas Tech to a win at Utah but also started the team’s lone regular-season loss, at Arizona State. Behind Hammond is Tulsa transfer Kirk Francis.
“He’s in a good spot,” McGuire said of Hammond. “We’re fortunate to have Will Hammond. He’s one of the most competitive, most dedicated guys. His team loves him. If you watch when he came in against Utah, just to see how the offensive line reacted whenever he entered that game. He’ll be ready to go, (but) I do not see pushing him in Week 1 to be ready to go.”
What are Sorsby’s pro prospects?
Based on talent (and under normal circumstances), the 6-foot-3, 235-pound Sorsby likely would have been viewed as a potential first-rounder in the 2026 draft. With or without the off-field issues, however, it wouldn’t have been a guarantee — the skilled big man (who plays a lot like Giants QB Jaxson Dart) had back-to-back productive years at Cincinnati but was not tested against the type of competition he’d have seen this season at Texas Tech. Oh, and there’s nothing normal about these circumstances.
Sorsby will probably be worth a pick for one of the many QB-needy teams who might be interested in coughing up a future selection. The question is: How early a pick will a GM be inclined to risk? The last quarterback taken in the supplemental draft was Terrelle Pryor in 2011 (a third-round pick by the then-Oakland Raiders). No team has given up a first-rounder in the supplemental draft since the Giants took QB Dave Brown in 1992.

Every year, TV manufacturers try to impress the superiority of their new models upon us (this TV is so many percentile points better than the previous one!). In this same way, both the LG G6 and the Samsung S95H promised a lot for 2026, and despite more modest gains in picture quality than they claimed, these are still great OLED TVs. Though they are closely matched, there’s one particular Samsung feature that has attracted a lot of interest.
One of the most intriguing features of the S95H is its ability to act like a Frame TV (but not quite) by displaying static artwork — something that hasn’t been possible with OLED technology before. However, I found it’s not capable of the same Ambient mode, and so it’s a much more manual process.
Of the two, the LG has more accurate color, and I prefer its antireflective coating, as it maintains black levels in a lit room. Yet, the LG has some issues with shadow detail, making greys appear lighter than they should. The Samsung, meanwhile, is a blast if you’re a gamer (more on that further down). That said, you will get a better deal by buying last year’s TV, and the rival LG G5 is similar to the S95H, but is also $1,000 cheaper. While the Samsung OLED’s ability to display art may be an interesting quirk, the Frame Pro is a more attractive option if a gallery mode is what you want most.
Also read: Best TVs of 2026
Samsung S95H OLED TV sizes, series comparison
I performed a hands-on evaluation of the 65-inch Samsung S95H, but this review also applies to the other screen sizes in the series. All sizes have similar specs and should provide similar picture quality.
55-inch Samsung S95H QN55S95HAFXZA
65-inch Samsung S95H QN65S95HAFXZA
77-inch Samsung S95H QN77S95HAFXZA
83-inch Samsung S95H QN83S95HAEXZA
Design and remote
If you’ve been familiar with Samsung’s flagship TVs of the past few years, you’ll remember the external connection boxes — either wireless or connected by a thin cable. Well, that’s all gone, and it’s been replaced by the most controversial part of the new design. The TV is surrounded by a 1-inch-thick metal surround that looks like it should be replaceable, a la The Frame, but sadly it isn’t. I didn’t pull it apart to test this, but Samsung representatives told me that this frame is what now houses the old connect box circuitry.
While the separate box kept the previous model supremely thin, at 0.4 inches deep, the S95H is over twice as thick at 1 inch. Though it’s not visible head-on, if you duck to the side, you’ll see that there is actually a space between the screen and the bezel, occupied by Sony PlayStation-like vents. OLEDs get hot — especially when they get as bright as the S95H — and this is a neat way to prevent your new screen from poaching in its own juices.
One welcome upgrade from last year is the provision of an easy-to-assemble stand. These two tool-less, click-in legs took less time to assemble than washing your hands did during the pandemic (“Happy birthday to you…”).
Samsung has pared down its chunky, colorful remote of the past to the bare minimum: a wafer-shaped clicker powered by a solar panel on the back. It’s fairly easy to use, though its lack of functionality won’t please power users. For instance, if you use your TV as an input switch, then you need to navigate to the Connected Devices menu option at the top to change inputs. I still prefer remotes that have a dedicated input button.
The screen is the star
For the past few years, LG has released iterations of its brightness-enhancing technology called “four stack,” which overlaps several OLED screens. Meanwhile, while Samsung’s 2026 S95H has seen a big jump in its brightness, a 30% increase in brightness year-over-year, its screen makeup hasn’t appeared to have changed from QDOLED or Quantum Dot OLED.
The reasons to buy this screen vary, but alongside the artwork feature, the antireflective coating is impressive and lets almost nothing through. If you have a pesky, distracting light source behind you that you can’t tame any other way, this TV is an attractive solution. But the S95H is not the only Samsung TV that does this; the S90H now has a modified version, and the Frame TVs have sported their own coatings for many years.
Speaking of the Frame, this Samsung is the first OLED TV to be able to display static art for extended amounts of time. According to the company, “Samsung OLED TVs incorporate multiple image retention mitigation technologies — including pixel shift and pixel refresh — designed to help reduce the risk of burn-in during normal viewing conditions. These technologies dynamically manage pixel usage to distribute wear more evenly across the panel over time.”
To test the new art mode, I left the most high-contrast image running for the better part of a day: a black-and-white Moomin image from the gallery. In ordinary circumstances, the TV would show retention of this kind of image almost immediately, but switching to a white or all-grey image showed no retention at all. Impressive. It’s just a pity there’s no ambient mode to display an image when you turn off the TV.
Smart TV gets an AI makeover
Being this is 2026, this television has a horde of AI-flavored technologies — some more useful than others. Though Samsung doesn’t have World Cup affiliations, the TV does have an AI Soccer Mode. This mode makes the ball less fuzzy during movement and the field more green. Is this something football fans need, though? The S95H also sports the NQ4 AI Gen3 processor for image processing and upscaling, as well as Amazon Alexa built in.
Unlike most high-end TVs, the S95H doesn’t have Dolby Vision HDR, and while I don’t think this is a big deal, completists may look to LG, Sony or even Panasonic instead. Connectivity is now all housed on the TV and includes:
Four HDMI 2.1 inputs 4K 165Hz
Three USB-A ports, one USB-C port
Optical digital audio output
Wi-Fi 6E
Bluetooth 5.3
Ethernet
I’ve been no fan of the smart TV systems of either Samsung or rival LG in recent years, but Samsung has taken steps in 2026 to streamline the experience. While the screen naturally leans into everything AI, it is cleaner and better organized than ever.
From left to right, the redesigned menu now starts with an information cluster that includes your profile, connected devices (especially useful for changing inputs) and settings. The other menu options to the right are probably less useful, depending on which way the wind is blowing, with For you, Live, Games, Art (AI and artwork store), Daily and Apps.
Like the Samsung S95F before it, the latest TV brings gesture control for owners of a Samsung Galaxy Watch. I didn’t test it this time around, but if the experience is the same as before, I can’t imagine many people using it more than once — a remote is much better.
High-end OLED comparison: LG G6 vs. LG G5 vs. Samsung S95H vs. Samsung S90H vs. Hisense U7
I started my tests of these five TVs with the 4K UHD Blu-ray movie It, and as Georgie hesitated at the top of the stairs to the basement, I felt the S95’s rival, the LG G6, displayed too much shadow detail. The open space beside him, with all its wooden beams, was very green on the G6, and this was compared with the G5, which had too little detail, while the S95H had about the right amount.
The same thing happened when I played the ruined city scene from the movie 1917, which starts in almost complete darkness. The G6 was too bright, and while I could appreciate the shadow detail, the S95H had a more balanced mix of shadow and pure black. The G5 behaved similarly to the Samsung here and showed that the older TV still knows how to mix with the ‘young kids.’
I then switched to a streaming copy of the latest Superman movie, and during the opening scenes of snow and ice, I found that the Samsung S95H, G5 and G6 looked very similar in terms of near-white detail. Yet some of the finer areas in the Fortress of Solitude looked a little greener on the Samsung — the first inkling that its HDR colors may differ from those on the other screens. Yet, it was also on this title that I noticed some green discoloration on the G6 when viewed from the side.
I also ran the S95H through some test footage from the Spears and Munsil test disc, and I found the most profound differences in color reproduction between the two high-end 2026 TVs. The oranges in the Munsil test disc, in particular, tended toward yellow on the Samsung, whereas they were nearly identical on the two LGs and Samsung S90H. Interestingly, the S95H was the only one that couldn’t display the orange sun, which appears toward the end of the test. In general, though, the Samsung S95H behaved similarly to the G5 except on red, which looked a little desaturated. The G6 was a bit more vibrant than the other two, especially with blues and oranges.
Lastly, on the 24p judder test, the S95H was smoother than the LG G6, which had very slight judder effects by comparison, but both were acceptable.
Bright room
Samsung has led the industry for several years in antireflective coatings. Every iteration of the S95 has shown some improvements, and the ‘H’ version is the best yet at rejecting all but the brightest lights. Even if you shine your phone’s flash directly on the screen, you’ll only get a ghostly glow, and no other TV I’ve seen in 2026 does this as well. The S90H has a modified version of this tech, but when I ran the same test, I saw a red tint in the S90’s reflection that the S95 didn’t have. But not everyone has a light shining directly on their screen, and so they don’t need this level of antiglare.
The downside to Samsung’s technology is that black is very slightly gray in a lit room. If you want a TV that you can watch in a lit room and enjoy a more dynamic image, then the LG G6’s coating preserves black levels. While the G5 was pretty good at antiglare, the G6 is truly the best at this kind of coating I have seen. It will still show direct light sources; you’ll still make out the shape of a reflected light bulb, for instance, but ambient light performance is better.
One last word about watching TV on the S95H: Even in Filmmaker Mode, the TV will adjust your brightness (and color) based on your room’s ambient light. If you care about picture quality, turn this off by going to Settings > Power and Energy Saving > Brightness Optimization. The picture then won’t change on the vagaries of an onboard light sensor, and you’ll get the performance you paid for.
Gaming
I played a variety of different games on all of the assembled 2026 TVs — the S95H, LG G6, Samsung S90H and Hisense U7 — and found that the Samsung S95H was the most fun of the bunch. It was bright, responsive (with a low 9.33ms lag in 4K) and able to illuminate all of the shadowy parts of a map where an enemy may be waiting in ambush.
You may find the default settings a little too lurid, though, and you can reduce the color control in Settings > Advanced Features > Game Mode Settings > Game Mode.
Uniformity and viewing angle
While the new G6 has an unusual off-angle problem where everything turns a slight shade of green, there is no such problem with the S95H. Even when standing to the side to inspect its aforementioned vents, I saw no issues with screen discoloration when viewing the Samsung S95H.
Picture settings and testing notes
While the TV is indeed brighter than last year’s, testing at 2,800 nits, the color results are a lot worse when it comes to HDR. When tested with luminance error included, both the Colormatch and Color Checker errors were higher than any other TVs I’ve seen in a while, at 17 and 12, respectively (ideally, they should be less than 3). The error without luminance included was at expected levels, but luminance readings take into account how accurate each color is at the expected brightness, and are arguably a better indicator of performance. These variations may have led to the visible color differences in program material, where oranges were yellow, or when the sun in the test material disappeared completely.
Portrait Displays Calman calibration software was used in this review.

The Iranian football team were forced to leave the U.S. immediately after their 2-2 World Cup group stage draw with New Zealand.
Iranian coach Amir Ghalenoei said U.S. officials ordered the team to leave the country after the match yesterday, and was quoted calling his team the “most oppressed team in the whole World Cup.” The Iranians have now returned to their training camp in Tijuana.
Ghalenoei claimed the plan was originally to remain in the U.S. before leaving for Mexico today.
Despite having all three of their group games played in the U.S., Donald Trump‘s administration has refused to let Iran stay in the country between matches. Around 13 members of Iran’s coaching staff were refused entry into the U.S., amid a politically charged atmosphere.
The U.S. and Iran have agreed a deal to end the war between them, per President Trump, the Iranian government and negotiator Pakistan, but the bad blood between the countries remains.
Prior to the New Zealand game, many Iranian fans flew pre-revolutionary flags, which symbolize their opposition to the regime in Tehran.
A few hundred fans, many of whom are Iranian-Americans, were reported to have protested against the national team, claiming it represents the Iranian regime’s Islamic beliefs rather than the sports team. Some sung the country’s pre-revolutionary anthem.
World Cup organizer FIFA has banned the pre-revolutionary flag inside stadiums as part of its shaky commitment to keeping the tournament non-political. However, it was seen in stadium during the match and on fans’ t-shirts.
The match itself saw Iran twice come from behind to draw 2-2 with New Zealand in their Group G match.

Transfer quarterback Brendan Sorsby will not play for Texas Tech this fall and instead plans to enter the NFL supplemental draft, ending an unprecedented legal fight over the college eligibility of a player who had acknowledged betting on college and pro sports, including some wagers on his own team while at Indiana four years ago.
Cody Campbell, the billionaire booster who is chairman of the Texas Tech regents, wrote in an open letter Monday night that Sorsby will not be part of the team.
“This decision was made with Brendan and his family and is purely an output of practical analysis of the situation,” Campbell wrote. “Brendan and Texas Tech stand on very solid and legitimate legal ground, but he faces a June 22nd deadline to be eligible to enter the NFL’s supplemental draft, and there is no practical way to resolve all the various pending legal disputes and ensure his eligibility prior to this date. This is the only viable and fair path for Brendan and his future, as well as for his teammates, and our university.”
That came exactly one week before the deadline for Sorsby to apply for the NFL supplemental draft.
And it was also one week after Sorsby was granted a temporary injunction against the NCAA, an order that sent shockwaves through college sports because one of the NCAA’s foundational rules, and one found in many professional sports as well, is the ability to ban players for gambling — especially those wagering on games involving their own team.
All the legal wrangling had raised the stakes in the fight over whether Sorsby could play and who would decide that.
Sorsby’s decision came on the same day the NCAA and Big 12 had filings in separate courts challenging a temporary injunction that had cleared the way for the 22-year-old quarterback to play despite being declared ineligible after he admitted making thousands of bets worth at least $90,000 while in college. Those included at least 40 bets on Indiana while he was a freshman there in 2022, though none on the game in which he played for the Hoosiers that season.
Sorsby didn’t play a down for the defending Big 12 champion Red Raiders. He transferred to Texas Tech in January for a reported multimillion-dollar deal after playing the past two seasons at Cincinnati, another Big 12 school. The Texas native was at Indiana in 2022 and 2023.
Campbell, while not revealing any figures, said Texas Tech will not seek the return of any payments already made to Sorsby through his NIL agreements with the university.
While it was Sorsby and not Texas Tech who filed the suit against the NCAA that resulted in the injunction, school officials had repeatedly said he would be better off on the team for his mental health and well being.
“I am grateful for the support from my family, my Tech coaching staff, teammates, the community, and so many others who have encouraged me to address and learn more about this important issue,” Sorsby wrote in a social media post Monday night. “As my journey continues, I remain fully committed to and focused on being the best I can be, both on and off the field.”
Court testimony revealed Sorsby has a diagnosed addiction and anxiety-driven compulsion. He recently completed a monthlong stay in a residential treatment program in Arizona that he entered after Texas Tech was notified in April about an NCAA investigation into his gambling activity.
“I pray that he can stay on his path to recovery,” Campbell wrote. “Texas Tech will continue to provide the support and recovery resources Brendan requires on this journey.”
In a joint statement, Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec and Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt also said the school would still extend all available resources to Sorsby that he had while on the Lubbock campus.
“When Brendan’s lawsuit resulted in the granting of a temporary injunction, we found ourselves in a difficult situation. With his health and wellness as our top priority, we supported him in spite of very different perspectives and opinions. Our position was challenged by many but our support for him never changed,” they wrote.
The ruling last week by Judge Ken Curry prevented the NCAA from being able to block the quarterback’s eligibility for what would have been his final college season with a team among the favorites to win the Big 12 Conference and return to the College Football Playoff for a second consecutive season.
The NCAA’s appeal
In documents filed Monday with the Court of Appeals for the Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo, the NCAA asked for an emergency motion to stay the June 8 injunction. The NCAA had also asked for a resolution of the case by Aug. 28, which it said would spare the potential disruption of a ruling after Texas Tech begins its season on Sept. 5. The trial was scheduled for February, well after the season ends.
“The trial court’s temporary injunction sweeps beyond anything Texas law permits,” attorneys for the NCAA wrote. “It undermines the integrity of college sports, rewrites member-adopted rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, immunizes Brendan Sorsby from discipline for admitted and serial violations of NCAA anti-gambling rules, incentivizes a run on courthouses across the country to challenge even the most obvious and straightforward student-athlete eligibility decisions and demolishes the status quo.”
Big 12 goes to federal court
The Big 12, meanwhile, filed its complaint in U.S. District Court in Dallas seeking a court order backing its ability to use its bylaws for possible sanctions against Texas Tech if Sorsby had played this season. Last week, the Texas attorney general’s office warned the league of potential legal action from Texas Tech for any such sanctions.
The Big 12 filing names Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee in the U.S. Senate race this fall, as well as Texas Tech leadership, including its president, chancellor and athletic director. It accused them of trying to prevent the Big 12 from exercising its own rules the school itself agreed to long ago. Sorsby wasn’t named as a defendant.
“An athlete with an extensive, documented history of wagering on intercollegiate athletic contests — especially his own team’s games — presents a reputational and integrity risk to the conference and its championship competition that the conference has both the right and the responsibility to address,” attorneys for the Big 12 wrote. “The conference is not required to accept that risk on behalf of its 15 other member Institutions, their student-athletes, their fans and its commercial partners. And no government official has the power to compel it to do so.”
That came before a meeting Monday of the Big 12 board of directors, which is made up of presidents and chancellors from the league’s 16 schools.
In a statement by the board after that meeting, the Big 12 said it “has long spoken out about the dangers of sports wagering by student-athletes and remains committed to protecting the competitive integrity of conference competition. Universities should not field players who have bet on their own team’s games in college athletics.”
Big 12 athletic directors in a conference call with Commissioner Brett Yormark last week expressed opposition to Sorsby playing for the Red Raiders this season, and some even suggested maybe not playing Texas Tech if he had.
___